For the Love of Apples
by Alex Ryzlin Gold
Summary: Helena and the Warehouse both liked apples. Claudia didn't really, but the Warehouse still liked her. Character study of sorts about Helena. Spoilers for most of her story and slight spoilers for 'Instinct', but not about Helena.


Disclaimer: I don't own W13, which would admittedly be quite cool.

Helena liked apples. She always had. They were a nice fruit that were far more useful than most other fruits combined. They were the most delightful red colour (at least the ones Helena normally ate were, but she didn't really discriminate, she liked _all_ apples) that meant they tasted as good as they looked. They had been around longer than the Warehouse (probably, Helena wasn't exactly sure but it wasn't a preposterous idea) and smelled delightful. They were technically a member of the rose family, which had delighted Christina when she had asked if you could eat roses and Helena had told her that she already had eaten a rose for breakfast that morning. It had only endeared apples to her even more.

Helena hadn't known why Caturanga was so happy that she had smelt apples from her first visit to the Warehouse. He had said it was because it meant the Warehouse liked her and while Helena soon learnt that it was entirely feasible for a building (though the Warehouse was _so _much more) to like her she hadn't really given it any special thought. After all, surely the Warehouse liked all of the agents to some degree, otherwise it wouldn't let them touch it's artefacts.

The smell of apples was always there, in the back of her mind whenever Helena was in the Warehouse. Sometimes it faded out of consciousness, particularly when she had been there for too long in a day and had become adapted to the smell.

There were a few times that the smell had intensified. Like after her first successful artefact retrieval, and when she had nearly (but not quite) beaten Caturanga at chess. Helena liked to think that those times she was being congratulated, but she never shared that idea because telling someone that you thought a building was congratulating you by smelling nice was a bit bonkers, even by Warehouse standards. Besides, it was nice having a little secret with the Warehouse.

There had been times when the smell of apples most certainly hadn't been a congratulatory thing. Like when Helena had learnt of Christina's death and had buried herself deep inside of the Warehouse and far away from everyone else. The smell of apples had clung to her the whole time and she could never seem to adapt to it or ignore it. Or when she had walked with Caturanga to the Bronze Sector. She had almost gagged on the intense smell that had almost turned into a taste on her tongue. She had known what it was, it was a goodbye. Her request was to never be freed from the bronze and as long as Caturanga was in charge that wouldn't happen. Helena had the weirdest feeling (she guessed Vincent's ranting had struck a chord with her, regardless of his stupid idea to bomb Germany with Joshua's Trumpet) that Warehouse 12 wouldn't be around for much longer. She hoped that when the Warehouse moved she became lost in it and no one would find her again. It would be a sort of bliss, knowing that her dark thoughts would not come to fruition. At least she had stopped herself before waking up Warehouse 2 and using the Minoan Trident.

Helena hadn't smelt apples when she was debronzed and lead out of the Warehouse by the soft spoken woman she later learnt was called Leena. Nor had she smelt apples when she came back and started her expedition into the Escher Vault, but she hadn't cared. She had her locket, which held the only picture of Christina she had left and the Warehouse could rot for all she cared; it existed in a corrupt world. There had been the faintest whiff of something that could be called apples in Warehouse 2, but Pete had shut the Warehouse down before she could actually decide what she was smelling. In the end she put it up to stress; it was unlikely for Warehouse 2 to be welcoming her (right?).

Helena hadn't smelt apples again until the end, not that it surprised her. The Warehouse was smart, and Helena hadn't thought for one moment that she would be able to trick it into thinking she was happy working in the Warehouse with no ulterior motives. That was probably why Claudia had been picked out as the next caretaker despite the fact that she hadn't been with the Warehouse for a particularly long time. The Warehouse could smell Helena's deceit a mile away and needed to make arrangements for it's wellbeing.

But in the end she smelt apples. It had been a tangier smell, slightly sour. Like granny smith apples rather than the sweeter royal gala apples (her favourite) Helena had associated Warehouse 12. But apples none the less and Helena knew this was another goodbye. She also knew with sudden clarity that there had been other paths. Paths where she hadn't gone quite so insane due to grief and things had ended quite differently. The Warehouse had tried to look after her in it's own way, but most people didn't speak 'warehouse' (even Mrs. Frederick was limited in what she understood, she just knew how to look after the Warehouse) and it was hard to protect someone when you couldn't communicate with the person debronzing an agent that never wanted to be debronzed.

But the Warehouse liked Helena, the number of the Warehouse didn't matter (Warehouse 2 had even been interested and intrigued by her, and it certainly owed her a debt of gratitude for finding it after all this time, it had become quite lonely), what mattered was the smell of apples. The Warehouse tried to protect the ones it liked, because it wanted them around for a long time.

Helena liked apples. The Warehouse liked Helena. She could have made a wonderful caretaker.

Claudia hated apples. They were too healthy and Claudia was more of a junk food and high sugar quantity type of girl. She only ate them if they were in apple juice or some sort of baked good. Like pie, Claudia loved apple pie (not as much as Pete, but that was pretty much an impossible feat anyway). She didn't mind the smell though. It was kind of nice, and at least it wasn't sickly sweet like the fudge that Artie kept talking about. So it could have been worse, but Claudia still didn't really like apples.

The Warehouse liked Claudia _and _apples. She'd get use to the apples eventually. She'd make a wonderful caretaker.


End file.
